Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann on Project Scorpio

The big story out of E3 will be Microsoft’s changing approach to the industry

Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann recently sat down with Josiash Renaudin on The 1099 podcast to discuss his predictions about the potential big story to come out of the E3 conference this weekend.

His response?

Microsoft’s shifting perspective on the gaming industry, from their Play Anywhere initiative to the ambitious Project Scorpio, could very possibly be the biggest thing to come out of E3 2017.

“You have Microsoft really trying to change their business and rewrite the narrative around these last few years of the Xbox One,” he said on the podcast. “I think that’s the story. What actually is Scorpio in terms of price [and] release date? Does that software actually look meaningfully better?”

Microsoft vs. Sony

Talking about Microsoft, Jeff claimed, “This is their chance to go over the top of Sony and say: now we have the most powerful console on the planet.”

For Sony to respond and attempt to top Microsoft, they’d have to put out an even stronger console, potentially making the PS4 Pro obsolete.

“[Microsoft is] in a position where they are going to put out [Scorpio] that’s easily going to be more powerful than the Pro, and then Sony is in a position where they can’t immediate react to that, other than… a price drop in the Pro.”

“This is [Microsoft] really trying to turn around and take control. That’s the big thing I’m looking forward to,” he said, “is to see Microsoft tell its… story around [Scorpio].”